The National Organization for
Marriage's television ad: 2009-APR
Sponsored link.
Background:
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) launched a 60 second TV ad
titled "A Gathering Storm" on 2009-APR-08. According to OneNewsNow, a fundamentalist
Christian news source, the ad is part of a $1.5 million ad campaign being
shown in 2009-Spring to "protect
marriage and religious liberty throughout the nation."
NOM's name appears to be a strange choice. They
are definitely in favor of most marriages -- those involving opposite-sex
couples. However, their main focus is to oppose other marriages -- those formed by
loving, committed, same-sex couples. In the interest of accuracy, "National Organization Against Same-sex
Marriage" would have been a far better name for their group to select.
However, there is an unwritten rule that organizations and legislative bills
must always have names that contain a positive spin, even when their main goal
is negative.
NOM holds one belief in common with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) community: both view same-sex marriage (SSM) as a major civil
rights issue. But they have an entirely different take on exactly whose civil
rights are being attacked:
LGBTs generally believe that they are the victims, since they are being denied the
many rights, obligations, protections, and privileges of marriage in most
states of the U.S. Loving committed same-sex couples cannot obtain the hundreds of state
rights and benefits and the over 1,000 federal rights for themselves and
their children. These are the rights that opposite-sex married couples
automatically receive.
NOM suggests that fundamentalist and other evangelical Christians
are the real victims. They see the GLBT
community as posing a massive threat to Christians' religious rights.
Three such
rights are mentioned in the TV ad:
The right of a physician to discriminate against LGBTs in the
provision of health services that she or he supplies to the general
population.
The right of church groups to discriminate against GLBT's in the
provision of services that they provide to the general population.
The right of parents to require their local public school board to
restore past policies of teaching discrimination against the GLBT community.
The one theme running through much of the ad is religious liberty. However,
it is not religious liberty in the
historical sense of freedom of belief, expression and/or association. The ad
deals primarily with the religious freedom to discriminate against women and minorities.
This is ironic because the vast majority of NOM supporters strongly
identify themselves either with Christianity or with another major world
religion. All of these religions share an ethic of
reciprocity. This is called the Golden Rule in Christianity. These ethics
of reciprocity suggest that
everyone treat others as they would themselves like to be treated.
Without such an ethic, society cannot function effectively. However, NOM is
promoting the opposite ethic: that Americans treat others exactly opposite to the way in
which they would wish to be treated.
As election day in 2012 approached, NOM introduced a very different video ad titled "Marriage = Biology (not bigotry)." It takes a different approach by promoting the benefits to society of "natural" marriage. This is one woman married to one man who conceive children together whose DNA are a mixture of the two parents' DNA. What NOM doesn't mention is that by condemning all other marriages as worthless, they are denigrating not only all same-sex couples but a much larger number of marriages involving opposite-sex couples who are infertile or who decide to not have children. More details.
The 2009 NOM ad: "A Gathering Storm:"
NOM has over 15 additional videos on YouTube, many of which dated back to 2008
and deal with Proposition 8 in California.
The videos have not been well received by the YouTube community, receiving an
average viewer rating of 1.2 stars. Ratings can run from 1 to 5 stars. 3,4
A rebuttal of the NOM ad by GoodAsYou.org (GAY.org):
The NOM ad has produced a few rebuttals. The following ad uses individual frames from the NOM ad while substituting their own sound
track to give an opposing message.
A parody of the NOM ad:
This video replaces the references to gender and sexual orientation with race.
Thus, discussion of same-sex
marriage (SSM) becomes a conversation about inter-racial marriage.
This parody very effectively destroys the NOM message. The effect is rather humorous. A highlight of this ad is when a
female actor states: "I am a California doctor who must choose between my
racism and my job."
It starts by showing ominous, black storm clouds in the background, with a
group of concerned persons -- one child and a group of adults -- standing rigidly as
if paralyzed by fear. There is the occasional flash of lightning in the
background. The female actors are
dressed conservatively; many of the male actors are in suits. All speak, in a
very serious tone:
"There's a storm gathering."
"The clouds are dark and the winds are strong."
"And I am afraid."
"Some who advocate for same-sex marriage have taken the issue
far beyond same-sex couples."
"They want to bring the issue into my life."
"My freedom will be taken away"
"I am a California doctor who must choose between my faith and my job."
"I am part of a New Jersey church group punished by the government because
we cannot support same-sex marriage."
"I am a Massachusetts parent helplessly watching public schools teach my
son that gay marriage is OK."
"But those who advocate for same-sex marriage have not been content with
same-sex couples living as they wish."
"Those advocates want to change the way I live."
(Vulnerable, dejected girl): "I will have no choice."
"The -- storm -- is --
coming."
At this point, the storm clouds lift and the sun disperses the clouds.
Damon Owens of the National Organization for Marriage says in a very
optimistic tone:
"But we have hope. A rainbow coalition of every creed and color are
[sic] coming
together, in love, to protect marriage. Visit NationForMarriage.org. Join
us."
There use of the term "rainbow coalition" is ironic. All "rainbow coalitions"
of which we are aware, from Jessie Jackson's group in 1984 to modern-day GLBT
groups promote equality rather than discrimination.
An analysis of statements made in the NOM ad:
In the past, religious and social conservatives have fought same-sex
marriage (SSM) by suggesting that it posed a major threat to opposite-sex
marriage and to the culture generally. That was always a hard sell. Many
people rejected the idea that their marriage or family would be threatened in
any way by the marriage of a same-sex couple who lived a block or more away.
This ad takes a different approach. It suggests that some dark and sinister
group who have been promoting SSM are now revealing their complete agenda.
They are described as being more interested in attacking people's religious freedom, changing the way
they live, and eliminating their freedom of choice.
The ad then to gives three concrete examples. None are really related to freedom
of religious beliefs, speech or assembly. All involve the freedom of religious conservative to discriminate against the LGBT community.
Listening to the advertisement brings back memories of battles in decades past
over racial discrimination, racial segregation, and marriage legislation that
prohibited interracial marriage.
The California doctor: The ad referred to a
physician who experienced a conflict between her religious beliefs and her medical treatment of
gays and lesbians who came to her seeking help. She was hired by a fertility
clinic to help patients become pregnant through the use of artificial
insemination. She
wants to serve only heterosexuals. She apparently feels that lesbians should not be allowed to bear children
using artificial insemination. Either way, she is motivated to discriminate
against the LGBT community because of her religious beliefs. She feared losing
her job because of her desire to discriminate against one group conflicted with her employer's policy of accepting all clients. She would have also been concerned about losing her job if she refused to help blacks or Jews.
The New Jersey
church member: This apparently refers to a conflict back in 2007-MAR.
The Ocean Grove Boardwalk Pavilion in New Jersey was once a popular
location for wedding ceremonies. Luisa Paster and Harriet Bernstein were residents of
Ocean Grove and planned to hold their civil union ceremony in the Pavilion.
The pavilion is owned by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a
Methodist group. The Association refused to allow the couple to use their
facility for only one reason: the couple are of the same sex. Luisa and Harriet maintained
that the pavilion is a "public accommodation" because it had always been
available for use by the general public. The Association viewed the pavilion
as a church. Their policies required them to discriminate against same-sex
couples. They correctly state that the recognition of
same-sex relationships -- other than as roommates -- conflicts with Methodist
doctrine. They claimed that their constitutional rights would be violated if
they were required to permit civil unions. The Association decided to
avoid future problems by denying all couples -- opposite-sex and same-sex --
access to the pavilion for wedding or civil union ceremonies.
They decided to disappoint many opposite-sex couples just so that they would
be free to follow the Methodist policy of discriminating against a relatively few same-sex couples.
According to Gay City News:
"In addition to banning sexual orientation and gender identity
discrimination, New Jersey state law specifically forbids discrimination
against civil union couples by entities that provide goods and services to the
public." 5
The New Jersey Division of Civil Rights ruled that the the
pavilion fell under the category of a "public accommodation." The Association
had received both state and federal funding on that basis. The Department of Environmental Protection revoked the Association's tax exempt
status because it found that it violated an agreement that its property be
open to all individuals on an equal basis. The Association filed a lawsuit
against the state, claiming that its First Amendment rights of religious
freedom guaranteed its
right to discriminate against gays and lesbians. "U.S. District Court
Judge Joel Pisano threw out the suit Nov. 8, stating that the pavilion was
public property, not a religious structure."5,6Eventually the matter was settled in 2012-FEB in favor of the lesbian couple.
If the
Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association had not entered into a financial agreement with the government to make the pavilion into a public accommodation, there would have been no conflict. However, they did enter into such a contract and later violated it, leaving them vulnerable to the charge.
The Massachusetts mother: She feels particularly
helpless because she cannot stop her son's school from teaching him "... that
gay marriage is OK." In her state, same-sex marriage is OK -- at least in a
legal sense. The Massachusetts legislature made it available to same-sex
couples in 2004-MAY. It has since become part of the state culture, as it has
across Canada after that country legalized SSM in 2005-JUL. SSM
appears to be working well in Massachusetts, because the state continues to have the lowest divorce rate of any state in the
U.S.
It is obviously important that schools
teach students about the institution of marriage as part of their curriculum. A full education on marriage would seem to include the three times that marriage has been redefined in the U.S., to date:
In the 19th century after the Civil War, African Americans were allowed to marry anywhere in the U.S.
In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing interracial couples to marry anywhere in the U.S.
In 2004, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry within the state.
Massachusetts was coerced by the state courts to follow the findings of
almost all human sexuality researchers, mental health professionals, social service
workers, the LGBT community, civil libertarians, religious liberals, and others
who support marriage equality for persons of all sexual orientations. The
mother apparently wanted the schools in the state to remain silent about same-sex marriage and thereby to imply to student that same-sex marriage was not allowed. She would require the local public school board to
teach false information and to teach discrimination against the GLBT community.
To sum up:
Doctors who serve the general public, and
Religious institutions who enter into a contract to provide a public accommodation,
and
Parents who want the public schools to avoid teaching the full story about marriage
will find such discrimination increasingly difficult to maintain.
This is not a new problem. Over the past dozen decades American culture has
evolved to drastically reduce its discrimination against women and racial
minorities. Adding homophobia to the existing short
list of sexism and racism as expressions that are no longer socially
acceptable should not be a major hurdle. Polls indicate that the younger
generations are easily accommodating this change.
A past financial and creative opportunity:
Project Pushback of the LA Gay & Lesbian Center organized a contest for filmmakers. They state:
"Here's your opportunity to help shape the discussion regarding marriage
equality by creating a video that could not only influence people to support the
freedom for same-sex couples to marry, but earn you $2,500 and the respect and
attention of an esteemed panel of judges."
"In the months prior to the election ... [of 2008-NOV], creative supporters of
marriage equality developed a number of clever videos to oppose Prop. 8. One of
them, "She's the California Constitution" 7
by Homotracker, ultimately aired on television stations throughout California."
"What 60-second video would YOU create to promote marriage equality?" 8
We looked for but were unable to find a similar contest for those
opposed to marriage equality.
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
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